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Finally some new merchandise offerings. The big news is that we’ve got hoodies again! They’ve got creepy cats on them whipped up by Aaron Edge of odeum.org. The pullover hoodies are here and ready to order. The zip-ups got delayed a little but should be ready to go by the new year. Also, for those of you on a budget (or those with an obsessive button collecting habit) we’ve got two new buttons designs. One features a variation of our 800 ball and the other features, you guessed it, a cat. For those and more items check out the merchandise page. Other news is we are adding people to our street team again. We’re stopping at 175 so if you want to help out our band at all here’s your chance to get on board. The only other news of interest is that we’ve booked our studio time for the next album. We’re scheduled to record at Egg Studios in Seattle in mid-Feb and early March. Overly obsessive updates on our progress can be expected
Show Journal 2003-12-04
This show can best be summed up with a quote by Bill Lumberg from the movie Office Space … “mmmmm yeahhh”. The evening started innocently enough with us sitting on the couch and Dave spreading his legs and offering Rick an opportunity to “toss his salad”. Later there was the discovery that the roof of the Meow Meow was leaking under the heavy rains onto the main floor. First up was Clarity Process and they rocked. Very energetic, very technical and very heavy at times. (Also, a pretty darn good CD too.) Anatomy Of A Ghost was second and they really caught me off guard. I had been told about tales of wild, crazy out of control shows but they seemed very subdued and almost kind of mellow. Here comes the “mmmmm yeahhh” part. We were third and within minutes half the crowd cleared out. Dave even made some comment mocking the people that left and upon saying that even more people made an exodus for the door. This was discouraging because the alternative was to stand outside in the 40 degree rainy windstorm. I thought about it for a bit and here’s the possibilities … a) we totally sucked b) we didn’t look cool enough or c) everyone who left was just “over punk rock”. I think the correct answer was d) all of the above. When we got offered this show I thought that musically we were at least in the same ballpark as these bands but apparently not. Gotta love that Portland music scene. Amazing. The ones that stayed are definitely in our ever loving graces for all of eternity and remind us why we do this in the first place. If you watched our set then take a second to pat yourself on the back and say “good job” for leaving us with some small sense of pride to take from this evening. Vaux was last and they totally fucking rocked. Cool lights, incredibly thick sound, amazing stage presence, just an awesome performance that got better with each song. Thanks to Thrasher and crew, the street team peeps, Ang and Ashley, Darin, Camaro Eric, Steve and family and of course Mocephus. Apologies to Michelle. Please don’t cut me.
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If you live near Portland come check out our last show for a few months on Dec 4th. Other news is that we’ve got some new merch being made including zip up hoodies, some new buttons and some fancy new posters. Also, we saw a little glimpse of the first song of the live Halloween DVD and it looks pretty amazing. It’s still going to be a few months before it’s release because it still has to get edited and manufactured. However, to quote Dave “the shit looks dope”.
Show Journal 2003-11-22
I apologize in advance for the length of this review. Unless you have a real vested interest in this show you might consider skipping it. So, finally a full CD and release show for Thirty 3. Seems like every time they put out a recording it’s a 7″ or some limited EP that I can never get a hold of because they made like five of them. I go to the shows and I ask but they never have one available. I see them outside of shows and ask for one and still would never get one. Despite being friends with them for nearly 3 years, practicing down the hall from them and seeing them play probably 20 or 30 times I had no recordings to show for it. Needless to say I was pretty stoked to actually have a CD in hand for once and I must confess it sounds amazing. The lyrics are great, the guitars sound huge and the album is deceptively catchy. Since this was a CD release show and Thirty 3 likes to do things differently the original plan was that some of the bands were going to dress up in costumes. There were promises of bands dressed as ninjas, pirates and even cowboys. In an effort to be completely offensive we chose to dress up as bums. We jokingly said we were supposed to be “failed musicians” but yeah ultimately we were just bums. We’ll get back to that in a bit. Huge turnout tonight which was great to see since the tre tre boys had been busting their ass to promote it. First up was Blue Turns White. Disgustingly good musicians. No costumes though. The Dead Unknown was second and played a damn burly set of metal/hardcore. Totally impressive. However, no costumes. Our homies in Countdown To Life were third. Before their set they were ushered outside for a moment and the crowd was secretly given life size masks that featured each of the bands faces. When they started to play everyone put on or held up their masks. It was hilarious. They were a little bewildered for a minute and then amused. Thirty 3 thought had the best of them until Danny offered to save people money by burning a copy of their new album. Again, no costumes. So we went and got ready by putting on our bum attire. I can’t describe each costume individually but between the four of us we had 6 coats, 4 sets of high tops and/or boots (at least 2 of those were missing toes), 3 sets fingerless gloves, 2 flannel shirts, 1 beanie, 2 hats, 1 skanky looking santa claus hat, 1 sweater, 2 long haired wigs, 1 tie dye t-shirt, 9 blacked out teeth, 2 sunday edition newspapers spread across the stage and 4 faces smeared in dirt and black makeup. Looking back it’s probably a good thing we didn’t have time to carry out our plan to put Justin in a wheelchair. I kept asking Dave and Justin “do I look like a bum?” Dave said “I know how to tell” and proceeded to curl up in a ball on the floor by the wall and only uttered the phrase “god bless you” for the next 10 minutes. We loaded on stage and were met by mostly blank stares. Only a few people seemed genuinely amused and most of them were standing on the stage. Best line of the night was Dave who during the soundcheck asked for “more change in the monitors” while Justin just muttered and groaned in the background. There were several things I’d like to mention mostly for myself so that I can remember this evening. 1) It was damn hot wearing two coats. I mentioned it to Jon later and he responded “dude, I could have told you that”. 2) Despite being cleaned those clothes smelled bad when warmed to body temperature. 3) About three songs into the set my mullet wig/beanie flew right off my head during a vicious fit of head banging. Oops. 4) At some point while jumping I cracked the stage in front of my amp. I’m guessing it was probably the extra 10 pounds of clothes. 5) I think only the people in the front saw this but early in the set Rick came out from the crowd and curled up to take a nap in front of the drum rise under some newspapers … while we were playing. Also, while doing this Justin attempted to pick his pockets. 6) Dave stayed in character most of the set and proclaimed “god bless you” at least 8 more times. 7) Someone repeatedly sang “who let the bums out” whenever it got quiet. Geez, I can only imagine what the people who had never seen our band before were thinking. We got a kind of lukewarm reaction at first but I think if I saw 4 people dressed as bums on stage I would just stare too. We played some new songs and as a gift to the message board regulars (for their big 1 year anniversary) we played what will probably be the retirement of Safety Dance. Last up were the stars of the night Thirty 3 and thankfully they actually stuck to the theme and dressed up … as cowboys!!! They sounded amazing. Hands down the best I’ve ever seen them. Now that I actually have a CD to listen to and know the songs they are twice as much fun to see. I am genuinely happy for them and am in some strange way proud of them for finally getting such a good a CD out and hitting the road more often. They are one of our favorite band musically and personally so we were flattered they asked us to play. Man this review is long. Big thanks to everyone in attendance including the people who have seen us lots of times as well as the people who stuck around even though they might not normally listen to a band like ourselves. Special mention to ‘Hobocephus’ (the ‘b’ can also be changed to ‘m’), Hopper and Eric for driving up from Eugene only to have their car towed and miss the whole show, and thanks to Ang for showing up dressed in full on bum attire even through we hadn’t changed yet! Huge thanks to Thirty 3 and all the other bands for making Portland proud of itself again. (Footnote: For the record we do acknowledge that homelessness and poverty is a legitimate problem in this country. Over the years we have played many food drives, benefit concerts and charity shows. Having said that I do think being able to have a sense of humor about these things does have it’s place too.)
Show Journal 2003-11-21
Holy crap what a rad show. Our last trip to Ray’s was a little lackluster (it was their inaugural show) so we were a little worried about the turnout this time but oh my god Richland came through with flying colors. The turnout was amazing, far better than any of the Atomic shows which was cool. We ended up arriving about 15 minutes before the show with Thirty 3 right behind us. Speaking of Thirty 3 they should really fix their head lights. Their driver side one is permanently stuck on high beam and blinded me for approximately 100 miles. They did pass us for about 5 minutes which gave me a small chance to see again but unfortunately we were mooned in the process. I didn’t realize how much I appreciated staring into that broken ass high beam until I was faced with the torturous image of Chris’s ass lighting up the cold night sky. So Thirty 3 was first and they played pretty well. There were a few issues with the sound but all in all pretty good. Rhythm of ’84 was second and as their t-shirt proclaims the Rhythm does in fact kill. I thought they sounded amazing tonight and the crowd really got into them. Of course with Jack and Kyle jumping into, out of and on top of the crowd every few minutes you better appreciate it. We had a great time playing and it was as good as if not better than any show at Atomic. Everyone up front was singing along, we had a few stage divers, even more guest vocals and there were at least 3 street team t-shirts to be spotted in the front rows. The new stuff went over well and despite it being totally late we played a few extra songs and requests. Big thanks go to our street team folks who always deliver big every time as well as the people who come see us at every show. (I swear sometimes I think I recognize more people in Richland than in Portland!) These are the kind of shows we’ll remember forever and we can’t thank everyone at Atomic for hooking us up every time. More thanks to Thirty 3 and Rhythm for making the pilgrimage to Tri-Cities with us. Oh yeah, super props to Jason for braving our show despite sustaining a collapsed lung at our last Atomic show. Toughest fan ever!
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Another weekend of shows is almost upon us. Friday is a return trip to Richland which has always been one of our favorite places to play anywhere in the country. Saturday is the big Thirty 3 CD release extravaganza in Portland. Don’t think it’s going to be exciting? You’ve got 6 bands each playing short 20 minute sets and if that’s not enough at least one band has promised to play in ninja attire, another band will be dressed as cowboys, yet another will dress as pirates and we’ve been promised a few other wacky surprises that only a band like Thirty 3 can pull off. What are we dressing as? We can’t really tell you but here’s a hint … “think outside the cardboard box”. Prepare to be offended. Very offended.
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We’ve gathered up the last remaining copies of ‘Swank’ and a few old promotional VHS copies of our ‘Get In The Van’ video from this web site. They will be given away at upcoming shows to anyone who asks for them using the secret pass phrase. The phrase is “hook my ass up with that old crap that no one else wants yo”.
Show Journal 2003-11-08
This was our first trip to McMinnville and gathering from the words of the kids there this was one of the few punk shows recently as well. The turnout was pretty good including a few familiar faces who traveled from Portland, Newburg and even as far as Rainier. Marco Polio started off the evening with loud rock, a large afro and more televisions than I thought humanly possible. The almighty Iknowkungfu was next and honestly it was one of the best sets that I’ve seen them play. Coolest and nicest guys you’ll ever meet … even if they are intolerant to the local press. They joked on stage about being old but I’m pretty sure that if we compared our median ages sadly we are the older band. If you are one of the people who stuck around for our set then you are probably a little confused and hopefully a little surprised. Why you ask? Well, between the small crowd, the intimate vibe in the room and the general feeling of ‘what else is there to do’ we ended up taking requests and then inexplicably deciding to play a large chunk of our new songs for the next album. We played Rise Again and New Song #5 which is pretty much a given at our shows recently but we also played these yet unnamed selections too: the metal song, the jangly song, the quirky song, the hardcore song, the really fast song and the song abut Charles Bronson. At least 4 of those songs had never been attempted live and the other two had only been played once or twice for an audience. Basically it was a huge game of stump Briana and Taylor who thought they knew the words to every song! Anyway, consider yourselves blessed or cursed for being the first ones to hear all those new songs. The drive home was amusing as we discussed popping zits, Dave’s taste for himself and the finer points of the movie ‘Bum Fights’. Huge thanks to Brian from Blue Star Creeper for putting on this show as well as multiple props to Darin and the G Unit, Briana and her endless supply of Pixy Stix, Taylor and the family, the almighty sword of FU and Julie for not tolerating the consumption of “eye boogers”. I almost forgot — highlight of the night — about half way into Iknowkungfu’s set Justin walks right up to the front of the stage and sits down in a chair directly in front of Bill’s microphone and tries in vain to amuse him. Bill was either oblivious to Justin’s antics or more likely just ignoring him. After a few songs and no reaction Justin’s head starts to sway a little and he starts to nod off. I’d like to point out that he was falling asleep with a very loud rock band 5 FEET FROM HIM! Eventually he slides over to another chair directly in front of the PA speaker and proceeds to completely zone out. Mouth open, head back, probably drooling … the whole deal. The drummer for Iknowkungfu sees what’s going on and whips a drum stick (in mid song I might add) and knocks Justin in the leg. Justin stirs momentarily, looks over to see everyone laughing at him, smiles and within 30 seconds was back asleep on the chair mouth open and snoring … all with a live band right in front of him. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Show Journal 2003-11-07
I actually missed all of the bands play tonight except for Hollow Point and the Civies. Most of my time was spent in the back room Sopranos style eating pizza and discussing roller coasters, nuclear fallout and how we all want to be Dave when we grow up. It was actually a fun time I just wish we had played better.
Show Review
The headliner this evening was 800 Octane. If you have ever seen the Octane boys play, there is no reason to even read on. Of course the set was solid. Of course the songs were flawless. Of course Dave was golden throated. Of course Eric nailed each song. Of course Justin jumped approximately 875879458954 times at an average height of 78 feet in the air. Of course Jim amazed us once again with his double bass action even though he doesn’t have a double bass pedal. Great set, great way to end the evening.” (Alex Cook / portlandmusicians.com)
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